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Sep 29, 2012

What is Big Data ?


Big data (also spelled Big Data) is a general term used to describe the voluminous amount of unstructured and semi-structured data a company creates -- data that would take too much time and cost too much money to load into a relational database for analysis. Although Big data doesn't refer to any specific quantity, the term is often used when speaking about petabytes and exabytes of data.



To clarify matters, the three Vs of volume, velocity and variety are commonly used to characterize different aspects of big data.




 Big data is being enabled by inexpensive storage, a proliferation of sensor and data capture technology, increasing connections to information via the cloud and virtualized storage infrastructures, and innovative software and analysis tools. Big data is not a "thing" but instead a dynamic/activity that crosses many IT borders. IDC defines it this way: 

Big data technologies describe a new generation of technologies and architectures, designed to economically extract value from very large volumes of a wide variety of data, by enabling high-velocity capture, discovery, and/or analysis.

What changes with Big Data : 


Datacenter architectures and organizational models will need to evolve as big data applications pervade a company's infrastructure. The IT  architectural and organizational approach used in clustered environments like a large Hadoop grid is  radically different from the converged and virtualized IT environments driving most organizations' datacenter transformation strategies.



Big data will inject high-velocity requirements associated with capture and analysis, as well as results/predictive reporting. With big data, IT is best organized around the specific opportunity and/or capability rather than merely a set of shared services that serve both traditional and newer uses. Most IT disciplines — from infrastructure to applications to governance — are ideally part of a single integrated team and work closely with users of big data in ways that are very distinct from traditional enterprise IT approaches.


What happens - When Cloud Meets Big Data :

 The cloud providers will play a key enabling role in nearly every facet of the big data space. 
  1. They will be among the most important collectors of data streams and content. 
  2. They will be among the most aggressive users of big data systems to run their own businesses. 
  3. They will also be in a position to enable big data use by technically savvy, but resource constrained, organizations (through simple, temporary provisioning of large compute and data pools).  


 How to prepare myself for this - Transformation :

EMC Education Services has tracks suitable to empower you on storage and analytic. 

  • Start your storage fundamental with Information Storage and Management (EMCISA) and then build it on Data Center Architect (EMCDCA) track
  • For analytic's, start with Data Science Associate (EMCDSA) and then build it on the next certifications ( not available yet ) in Data Scientist (EMCDS) track
  • Also, there is a Free Elearning on Basics of Big Data available on http://bit.ly/Uzf566 

Other References -